Minerva's Gift
by Urau
Summary: Genesis had finally found out what the 'Gift of the Goddess' is, he had hoped for a cure. Not to be sent to another dimension and being found by the counterpart of an old rival—but maybe she is the cure. Genesis/AU!Female!Sephiroth. AU/AR.
1. Chapter 1

**_.1._**

* * *

White hot pain blinded Genesis for a moment as he tried to move. He tried to suppress the pained cry, muffling it into a pained grunt. His left shoulder is acting up again.

"Are you okay?" The sound was slightly distorted. His vision was momentarily blinded by the sudden piercing glare of a light. For a moment, fear gripped his chest—fear that ShinRa had already caught him before he could find a cure for the degradation; fear that he was already dead; fear that he was in a lab somewhere, to be used as an experiment till his death—but it was gone the moment his brain finally registered the words spoken to him. No one from Shinra would ask him that question—no one but his friends, that he betrayed—so the possibility that he is in Shinra's grasp is out.

The question was repeated at him and he scowled in irritation. He closed his eyes and opened them again, body tense, ready to take on whoever—

His vision was filled with green. But it wasn't what had caught his attention—eyes the color of green was pretty common—it was the green cat-like eyes boring into his own faded blue orbs. The owner of those eyes leaned back and Genesis unconsciously relaxed when he noticed that instead of the silver bangs framing their face, his savior's was raven—so it wasn't _him_ after all. And it was a woman.

He studied her. She bore an uncanny resemblance to Sephiroth—nearly everything was the same; the eye color and its shape, skin tone, cheekbones, lips, jaw—which slightly unnerved him though he would never admit it.

"I'm fine," He snapped when she repeated the same question at him.

"Oh, good. Thought you died," She said nonchalantly. She studied him in turn. She smirked faintly, "It seems like mother's experiment worked."

Genesis tensed at the mention of that. "What? _Experiment_?" His voice has lowered to a dangerous tone.

"Yes." She paused. "I'm Sephiroth Crescent. You?"

Had he been a lesser man, his jaw would've dropped. "Sephiroth—is your mother a fan of Sephiroth?" He asked, sarcasm entering his voice. But even though he said that, the timeline was wrong. She looks to be 17 or 18 at most.

The self-proclaimed Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, not offering any words. He sighed, "The name's Gen—"

"That's enough." She interrupted him. He glared at her.

"First you told me to introduce myself and now you ask me to shut up?" He could feel rage burning in his veins.

"No—firstly, I just asked a 'You?' and secondly, I didn't ask you to shut up—you don't have to look like you're ready to kill me." She said placidly.

"You must find your situation odd. So let me explain—" She started.

"I don't need your help, I am not blind to not be able to see the situation myself." He snapped, interrupting her. Internally, he felt smugly satisfied for interrupting her—the look he got could have melt any ice glaciers.

She cleared her throat. "This is not your planet—in case you're wondering, its planet Earth."

That confirms it. She's nuts. He must've said that out loud since the girl's eyes narrowed at him. "This—Genesis Rhapsodos, is not a game nor am I insane."

"How do you know my name when I've never told you?" He was on guard immediately. He stood to his full height—which was just average for a man—towering over the girl—who admittedly was tall for a female.

"Give me a chance to explain and I'll start from the beginning." She said. Genesis nodded sharply, hand resting on the hilt of his Rapier. She stared at his action impassively but she started talking anyways.

"This is—perhaps—an alternate universe of your world. You were most likely transported here by the space-time warp portal that my mother opened yesterday—it was an experiment to see what it can do." She paused, considerate enough for Genesis to submerge in this new knowledge. He motioned for her to continue.

"Hmm—as I was saying just now, in an alternate world, there will be counterparts of your people in this world. I said I was Sephiroth Crescent, and I _am_—perhaps the Sephiroth in your world is extremely different from me but in some sense, we are the same. Are you friends with my counterpart? Since I am friends with your counterpart and Angeal's—that's if you even had the same name—so I thought so."

Genesis felt his throat went dry. This was too much for him. "Where are we now?" He asked lamely. Something in his more rational mind urged him to ask that.

"At my school." Sephiroth replied. She looked at his armor. "I assume that your world is magical—full of magic and monsters and other fantasies, yes?—judging by what you're wearing. For your information, this world is normal, no such things as there are in your world." _So what she said was true_, Genesis mused wryly, _the Sephiroth I knew and the one here is one and the same—perceptive as always._

"How did you get here?" A hint of curiosity seeped into her tone.

Genesis frowned. The last thing he remembered was that he had been fighting with Angeal's student. Zack. That was also when he finally realized what the gift had been all along.

_The Gift of the Goddess._ In the end, he had never got it. But he felt fine, "How do I look like?"

"You or your counterpart?" She asked.

"Me." He replied, impatient. She scanned him.

"You look fine—but you have grey strands in your hair. You look older than the Genesis here."

"And you look younger than the Sephiroth I know." He snapped, irritated.

She blinked at him. She didn't seem to be angry at his sudden rude outburst—no, like her counterpart, that emotion seems to be too low for her—and it irked him. "Can you fly?" She asked, changing the subject.

He nodded warily._ How did she know that?_

As if reading her mind, she said: "Feathers" —She pointed at the ground when she said that—"all over. Didn't see any birds flying around so it had to be you—what other appendage that a human can have that has feathers?"

"Then let's go," She said, pulling on his arm. They were on a rooftop, he noted absently. "We need mother to check up on you—and she'll be thrilled to know that her experiment was a success." Unlike the Sephiroth from his world, she seems much more cheerful and open. But it doesn't mean that she was an easy person to read. If you ask him, she was even more bizarre than the male Sephiroth.

"Its painful." He muttered darkly. "Why can't we walk?"

"With what you're wearing now?" She asked incredulously. "Let me tell you, no one in this world ever wears what you wears."

He scowled, he knew nothing of this world so he can't retort. Flexing his shoulder and bracing himself for the pain, he summoned his wing. Excruciating pain washed through his whole being. In his haze of pain, he saw the girl placing a hand on him. It was like a cure spell, only... more so. It took him a minute to realize that the dull burn, the persistent throb he had learned to live with, was fading—but not completely.

"Your pain's worse than I thought it would be." The words sounded as though they were murmured underwater. It was as though it was happening to someone else, even though the pain was so very real, a fiery itch on the inside that he couldn't scratch—but subdued for now.

"W-what did you do to lessen the pain?" He heard himself ask as he stared at his single black wing—that had appeared without too much pain thanks to Sephiroth.

"Nothing, I just place my hand on your shoulder." She looked at him oddly. Rage blinded his vision red but he refrained himself from lashing out onto the girl.

"Well?" He snapped. "Come here." He commanded. She stepped forward, hesitating briefly. Genesis smirked cruelly at her discomfit. He grabbed her forearm and pulled her close to his body, wrapping his arms around her waist. He lowered his head so that his mouth was close to her ear—so close that they could feel each other's breath—and murmured, "You better hold on tight."

Without warning, he leap into the air. His wing flapped to keep them afloat. Her slight weight was of no hindrance to him or his wing. "Where?"

Despite the question being vague, she understood completely what he wanted to say. "I live in a mansion." She must be filthy rich. "alone with my mother and three brothers—two older and one younger. The mansion is isolated among trees. Easy to find—just head west."

"This is Midgar then?" Sephiroth nodded. Unbelieveable. The Midgar he knew was filthy, stank like shit, has an upper plate and dirty air. They flew in silence for the rest of the journey. For some strange reason, Genesis felt that Sephiroth was relief because of that—did she hate talking to him that much?

True to her words, the mansion wasn't at all hard to find. He landed in the garden and started taking his new surroundings. The mansion is a massive, two-floor building and seemingly consisting of a single parallel epipedal structure, from which other parts protrude on its top. The walls are split into several, rectangular sections by a number of flat pillars protruding from the wall, which possess capitals, whose shape is reminiscent of wings, topping them where they sustain either the horizontal frames separating the first floor from the second or the highest part of the main section, adorned by battlements. Similar battlements are also found on top of the arched entrance porch, under which sits the double door, granting access to the building, with an arched glass part topping the door, acting as a semicircular window. The facade is adorned by a number of thin, elongated windows, ending on the top in an arched part, which houses a stylized star formed by the frame. On the top of the building, in the center, sprouts a square tower adorned by a very large, circle-shaped rose window, with some white bas-reliefs in the form of clouds sitting below it; such structure is topped by a round dome, bearing a metal decoration yet again shaped like a star on its top, and similar ones on the edges, sitting on golden spheres, plus more hearts on the dome itself. Flanking such towers are two more, approximately the same height, sitting on the facades' edges, possessing roofs with arched frontal parts, and seemingly sprouting several chimneys from them. Two more towers with round domes topped by stars are visible in the back part of the building.

The mansion's beauty rivaled that of President Shinra's.

"I give full credit to the architect." Sephiroth said, smiling at him. Genesis felt his heart clenched—for reasons he didn't know himself—at that sight. Maybe it's because Sephiroth never smile often—smiling on a _very_ special occasion only—and seeing his counterpart smiling so freely gave him odd vibes. Yes, that must be it.

"Hnn." He grunted. "Is your mother home?"

"You're so impatient." She muttered. "Take in the horrors of an unkempt garden and a not-so-tidy house, then perhaps you'll be _extra_ relieved when you leave," she said in a low, mocking voice as they made their way out of the garden and down some pretty much ancient stone stairs, then made their way up the porch and into the mansion. She speculated at the sound of her words for a minute—she didn't really feel as cold as she sounded. Maybe it was because the guy looked so hostile and good at the same time.

"And no—she isn't home at the moment. Wouldn't be back for a week or so. She'll be stuck somewhere in the labs. Both my brothers are overseas, in college. My younger brother—that little brat—is on vacation." Sephiroth grumbled. "Its summer vacation—if you didn't know that."

In a way she was lucky that they were all gone. She could only imagine what her mother would say if he saw this average height, armored heavily man with a weapon. To say the very least, her mother would start foaming at her mouth and get a heart attack while dialing the emergency number. Yazoo—her oldest brother and most protective one—would freak and start shooting with his gun blade or using one of his many gun. Loz—her second older brother after Yazoo—would either start crying for help or charged him with bare fists. And Kadaj—her younger brother—would shriek curses and cause collateral damage. She would have none of it to happen.

"Why can't you call her—" Genesis felt his vision swim in front of him. He blinked, struggling to stay conscious. But to no avail.

Sephiroth, hearing the commotion, turned to see what had happen. Her eyes widened in horror. "Genesis!" She hadn't notice before but he was bleeding, the blood seeping out of the bandage and onto the floor. Her mom would kill her for this. Genesis was conscious long enough to give her a glower—as if it was her fault that he had collapsed.

It annoyed her. At this rate, he would be out like a light and never wake up again—and it would be all his own fault. As soon as she turned away she frowned deeply, slightly frustrated because of his ungrateful behavior and rude expression—though hers wasn't much better at the moment.

She ran to the bathroom and grabbed anything that she could find to bandage his wounds—what has he done to get such injury?—that seemed to be much worse than she had first thought. Heck, he seemed fine just minutes ago.

She removed his leather coat and armor—which took a while since she doesn't know how to undo the clasps holding the armor up—and stripped him off his shirt. He was bleeding badly on the floor. She wasn't willing to move him anywhere else since it will be hard to clean the mess up later.

She had never treated an injured person before—much less one as injured as badly as Genesis?—so she wasn't exactly sure what she should do. She settles for bandaging his wounds. By the time she was finished, her hands were already covered in blood.

She sighed heavily and trudged to the bathroom to wash her hands before reaching for her cellphone.

The phone rang once, twice—

—_What is he doing that takes him so long?_—

"Who the he—"

"Kadaj—finally—come home quick!" Sephiroth cut in before her younger-by-three-years brother could say anymore.

"I'm on vacation, sis, what's so important that I have to go back now?" The little brat demanded.

"Very—its too long to talk on the phone so just come home."

"Fine. Be there in an hour." Kadaj hung up—Sephiroth could tell that he was irritated and angry.

She turned around and looked at Genesis who was still unconscious.

She tried not to sigh. How did her male counterpart deal with someone like him?

* * *

**A/N: All right—so this is a new story. Its an AU (Alternate Universe). Pairings will be Genesis/AU!Sephiroth.**


	2. Chapter 2

_**.2.**_

* * *

"Who is this man?" Kadaj demanded, swiping long silver-haired bangs out of his eyes. He glared down at the redhead occupying the sofa. With great reluctance, Sephiroth had agreed to move the man onto it—she was reluctant because she was afraid of dirtying the sofa. Her prized possession but Kadaj insisted.

Sephiroth pursed her lips, unsure as to how to answer. After all, the real Genesis in her world was already—

"Gen." She replied simply.

Kadaj quirked an eyebrow. "No last name? Really?" He asked, curious. He couldn't remember clearly but he was certain he had met the man before.

"Gen Rhapsody." Sephiroth said.

"Rhapsody?" Kadaj had to surpress the laughter bubbling at his throat. "I see; where did you find him? A friend of yours?"

"Why do you ask so many questions?" Sephiroth asked, irritated as evident on her features.

"How am I suppose to learn if I don't ask? I am, intellectually curious after all," Kadaj teased.

"If you're so eager to learn, why don't you go help mom in the labs?"

"Are you that eager to get rid of me?" Kadaj asked mockingly.

"Ugh—you're insufferable." Sephiroth snapped.

"You're intolerable."

"You're—" A groan escaped the redhead's lips—stopping the fight of the two siblings before they could go any further. Kadaj and Sephiroth were hovering above him even before he was aware of it.

"He isn't dead yet." Kadaj said stupidly. Sephiroth threw him an irritated stare, not bothering to reply.

Spotting two strangers hovering on top of him, Genesis lashed out, hand reaching out to snap the enemy's neck—what, with being in SOLDIER had honed his instincts; strangers means enemies most of the time.

"Whoa, what's wrong with him?" Kadaj barely managed to jerk back from the redhead's arm. Having trained in martial arts, the siblings knew that the movement of the arm was meant to snap one's neck. His jaw dropped, what did his sister brought home this time? First there was that drunk redhead—what's his name again? Genesis something—then stray animals, kids, insects and another teen—dark hair and acts like a puppy. Their house was not a place for lost thing to go to!

"He . . . er . . . is distraught." Sephiroth said lamely as she inched closer to the redhead. Kadaj hovered behind her warily. Brotherly instincts kicked in, making him want to protect her from danger—the redhead was obviously a loon, why can't his older sister see that?

"Maybe we should call mom." Kadaj suggested, hand digging into his jeans for a cellphone.

Sephiroth nodded. "That's what I wanted to do, but he suddenly collapsed so I had no choice but to postpone doing that." She dabbed a wet, ice-cold handkerchief on the redhead's feverish forehead. "Her experiment yesterday night succeeded."

"He was the result?" Kadaj asked, intrigued. "There really is an alternate dimension?" His voice was laced with disbelief. Sephiroth nodded, making a sound of agreement. "Mom will be thrilled!"

"Undoubtedly," Sephiroth smiled, thinking about it. The smile fell when she saw Kadaj scrutinizing the man and not doing what he was supposed to do. "Well? Get to it."

Kadaj stared, momentirily stunned and confused about what his sister had said. "Oh, right." Sephiroth sighed.

"What a scatterbrain." She mumbled. She looked the man, Genesis over again and frowned in disapproval. "He needs a doctor—quick."

"What was he involved in to get so injured anyway?" Kadaj asked, a similar frown appeared on his sharp features—but for a completely different reason.

The phone rang for quite a while. Kadaj paced impatiently, mumbling. "What is she doing?"

"She thought that her experiment was a failure since Gen didn't appear in his intended location." Sephiroth supplied. "So she must be studying what's wrong."

"Where did he appear? How did you find him?" Kadaj glared at his phone. "Pick the damn phone up already, mom!" He growled.

"In my school. On the rooftop." Sephiroth said. Genesis hissed in pain, in his sleep. Trying to claw his way out of the clutches of his phantom enemy. "I don't know how he ended up there though."

"A malfunction?" Kadaj asked to no one in particular. It was a rhetorical question, but someone answered anyway.

"_What malfunction, Kadaj?" _Said boy perked up immediately.

"Mom!" A sigh was heard from the other hand of the phone.

"_Kadaj, you know I am busy."_

"You mean the experiment you launched yesterday? It wasn't a failure, the results just appeared in another place. Sis found him in her school. Come home quick to see him, mom." Kadaj didn't give his mother a chance to get a word in. "and bring some medical supplies, he was hurt. Badly."

"_Kadaj—this is no time to be joking. I just found out some horrible side-effects, the person from the other world wouldn't last long here. They were created from a different essence from us, it must be what resisted the pull of the machine when I tied to summon a creature from there." _Lucrecia Crescent explained, patiently. She was a patient person, unlike her ex-husband, who fathered all her children, who Sephiroth got her impatient—and most of his personality—attitude.

"I'm not!" Kadaj protested, slightly indignant. He thrusted his phone towards Sephiroth who looked at him impatiently. "Tell her, sis."

Sephiroth snatched the phone from his hand and pressed the phone to her ear. "Hello, mom." She greeted politely—unlike Kadaj who got straight to the problem rudely.

"_Hello, Sephiroth."_ Lucrecia greeted, voice tired. Sephiroth knew that her mother most likely did not sleep last night, trying to puzzle out what went wrong with her project.

"Kadaj isn't lying or joking." Sephiroth stated plainly but it got the point across. "So please come home now."

Hearing that, Lucrecia straightened up immediately_. "I'll come see."_ She hung up. If there was one thing she shared with Sephiroth was that they never joke or lie in serious situations or on some certain subjects.

Sephiroth handed the phone back to Kadaj who was pouting, but he accepted the phone anyway. "Why does she only listen to you?" He asked.

"You lied and joked to her on the same subjects before—serves you right though." Sephiroth grinned.

The first time Genesis came to, he saw two figures hovering above him and he had lashed out. But that took a lot out of him—which surprised him since it did not happen before. Then he had passed out—he must've looked pretty pathetic back then. The second time he woke up, he saw cat-like green eyes, eyeing him with gentle concern.

"Sephi . . .roth . . ." He murmured in disbelief. Didn't Sephiroth died in Nilbehiem five years ago? What was he doing here, nursing him and spooning him porridge?

'Sephiroth' smiled at him. Genesis could only blink, before he squeezed his eyes shut—Sephiroth doesn't smile, not much anyway. He ate what was fed to him without any complains though that was mostly because it was easier to comply than resisting. He didn't know what happened next since he blacked out.

Third time's the charm. He woke up, fully aware and conscious on the third time. Though when he tried to sit up, the world tilted dangerously in his eyes. He had to leaned back onto the soft walls—or whatever it was supporting him.

"—bad shape—"

"—do for him?" He couldn't make out a full sentence of what the people in his room were saying. His head was still spinning.

"We—back—" Genesis strained his ears to listen properly to what they were saying.

"The machine's still not working." A woman's voice said. "It will take a while."

"But the question is, can he last that long?" A girl's voice ask.

"We're not sure." The first voice said.

"Hey, he's awake!" A boy's voice said. Silver and luminous green was suddenly in his vision.

"Sephiroth?" Genesis said, bewildered. The boy pulled back, shaking his head, a frown on his features.

"I am Kadaj. She is Sephiroth." He looked between the two. "I thought you two knew each other."

"Yes and no." The woman replied for her daughter. Genesis noted that she and her daughter share many similarities. The woman has brown hair and eyes though—her daughter looked like her father perhaps? "I am Lucrecia Crescent, a ShinRa scientist, single mother."

"What do you mean by 'yes and no', mom?" Kadaj demanded.

"He is from an alternate dimension, he has a counterpart here—someone that was him in our world—that I knew of. I knew him but at the same time, I don't—we just met after all." Sephiroth explained. A look of irritation on her face but she hid it well, like the Sephiroth he knew did.

"I see." Kadaj sang. "Do you know me from your world?" His eyes burned with curiosity into his faded blue orbs.

"No—this is my first time looking at all of you." He paused, gaze sweeping over each one of them. Lucrecia, the scientist, was taking notes; Sephiroth was watching him with an unseeing gaze, seemingly lost in past memories; Kadaj was studying him with open curiosity, as if he was some sort of rare bug. In his world, ShinRa had once suggested people eat bugs because they were low on food. Genesis had never felt sorry for any of the.

"Can you please continue?" Lucrecia asked politely.

"The Sephiroth I know is male and looks like him" —Genesis stabbed a finger in Kadaj's direction—"but bulkier and taller and older."

"Hey, I'm still growing." Kadaj protested—he reminded Genesis of a certain Puppy.

"We know that," Sephiroth remarked. Her gaze hardened. "Back to the problem at hand—"

"What problem?" Genesis demanded, interjecting her. He could practically feel Sephiroth's mood turn sour.

"We need to send you back to your world, because you don't belong here." Kadaj said. "You're made of a complete different essence from us and our environment isn't suitable for you."

"Environment? The Midgar I know is polluted—why would there be a environment problem here? Last I saw it, the Midgar here is perfectly clean." Genesis snapped.

"No,no' Kadaj didn't mean that." Lucrecia said. "Your body has a few—ah—unknown cells and other substances in it, and your health is deteriorating. We concluded that you can't live here."

"No, you're wrong." Suprise flitted across Lucrecia's face but she was silent. "I was an experiment since birth." Genesis couldn't comprehend why he was telling them—complete strangers—this. Maybe it was because he wouldn't see them ever again so there was no danger in that. "I was injected with Jenova cells, which was what caused my degradation."

"_Jenova_ cells?" The three others in the room demanded incredulously; staring at him oddly—as if asking he was sane or not.

"Yes, you have a problem with that? Hard of hearing?" Genesis asked sarcastically.

"Why would youu have our _grandmother's_ cells?" Kadaj asked, voice laced with disbelief and incredulity.

"Grandmother?" Genesis demanded. "Last I heard in my world, she was an alien that drove Sephiroth mad and razed a village to the ground. Sephiroth believed her to be his mother." He glared at the three shocked faces. "Sephiroth was a single child, orphan, and an experiment like me. But he didn't degrade."

"Why?" Sephiroth asked; she was the only one not stunned enough to be stupefied. "Why didn't he degrade like you?"

"Because your—I mean his—J-cells are pure. Unlike mine and Angeal's." Genesis said bitterly. She blinked, but didn't say anything though she looked as if she wanted nothing more to ask questions.

"Interesting . . ." Lucrecia murmured, scribbling down everything she heard onto her notebook.

"Mom, now isn't the time." Sephiroth nearly whined. "We need to know what we are going to do with him." She pointed at Genesis.

"You can cast me off a high building," Genesis suggested airily.

"Not fair; you can fly." Sephiroth retorted.

"What? Really?" This made Kadaj and Lucrecia even more fascinated. They looked like they wanted nothing more but to dissect him and study him.

"Yes, really." Genesis snapped.

"Do you want to go back to your world?" Sephiroth asked. "We can do that."

"Is that something you ask of someone from another world?" Genesis rolled his eyes.

"You sound bitter." Lucrecia remarked. "We figured you don't very well like your own world." There was that pity he loathed in her eyes.

"All my friends and family are dead." Genesis finally said.

"Umm, so sis died?" Kadaj asked, uncomfortable. Genesis nodded.

"She—he, whatever—went mad." Genesis repeated. Talking to Kadaj was pretty tiring, it was as if he was talking to Angeal's Puppy—Zack Fair—again. Something which he no longer mind since having the Puppy here somehow made everything seem like the olden days again—where his precious people were still there.

Genesis blinked, he was tired. Very, in fact. Lucrecia seemed to have caught on. "Come on, kids, we'll discuss the matter ourselves. He needs to rest."

"But he looked pretty find to me!" Kadaj protested as he and his sister were ushered out of the room. "He just woke up, why does he need to sleep?"

"Let's just go." Sephiroth snapped. A wild look in her eyes, she was the most shock out of the three when they found out she went mad.

"Rest well." Lucrecia turned off the lights and left, closing the door behind her. But she didn't lock it, something which he was grateful for.

Darkness engulfed him.


End file.
